Teen receives 9-month term in robbery

Judge unhappy with terms of plea in beating, robbery of 75-year-old man.

Judge unhappy with terms of plea in beating, robbery of 75-year-old man.

January 14, 2006|JEFF ROMIG Tribune Staff Writer

CASSOPOLIS -- Donald Reed allowed his young acquaintance into his home, but the 75-year-old had no idea what was about to happen. Before he knew it, 19-year-old Jeremy Phillips had wrapped a shirt around his head and was beating him. When the beating ended, the Dowagiac teen had taken between $500 and $600 from Reed before fleeing. Judge Michael Dodge sentenced Phillips to nine months in the county jail Friday morning, but he wasn't happy about it. Dodge only accepted the plea agreement -- which capped Phillips' sentence at nine months -- because he didn't want the case to have to go to trial for the three additional months he wanted to give Phillips. Phillips pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery Nov. 14 as part of a plea deal that capped the sentence if he agreed to cooperate if two alleged co-defendants were ultimately charged in the case. Dodge said the case was "very troubling" to the court because Phillips initially denied any involvement and then flunked a polygraph before "pointing a finger" at two other men. "But you're the only guy he saw," Dodge said of the victim's recollection of the July 14 incident. "The court's left to wonder how honest you're being." Dodge said he was tempted to reject the plea agreement because one of the alleged co-defendants was sentenced to a lengthy prison term in December on an unrelated matter, while the other hasn't been located. "I don't know what good your testimony is going to do," Dodge said. Patrick Kane Sr. was sent to prison Friday on a handful of methamphetamine-related charges. The 46-year-old Vandalia man was sentenced to between four years, three months and 20 years in prison for maintaining a methamphetamine lab in his Williamsville Road home. He also was given a two-year, consecutive sentence on a felony firearm conviction that he'll serve before serving the sentence for the methamphetamine convictions. The Cass County Drug Enforcement Team raided the home May 24 and, in addition to finding a meth lab, they found an infant living in the drug house. That led to a second-degree child abuse charge, of which Kane was also convicted following a Nov. 17 bench trial. Staff writer Jeff Romig: jromig@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7001